Romulus Linney

by thecustomhouse

We saw Heartless at The Linney Theater. The theater is named after Romulus Linney, the playwright, who gave a wonderful commencement address at Oberlin. Here is an especially nice part addressing the impact of plays:

“Kenneth Tynan, a British drama critic, said that every good play is finally about human beings coming to terms with reality. Sounds obvious but it isn’t. He meant real life, as it is, as it comes to us, so often unlike what we think it is, will be, should be, must be, or at least can be. We are so often wrong in our basic assumptions about reality, we will give our full attention to any stage that puts before us life as its characters misunderstand it, made plain, plausible and sensible to us by its conflicts, sometimes delightful, sometimes bloody.”